Professional Examinations in both surgical oncology and in breast cancer surgery

ESSO Advanced Course on Oncoplastic Breast Surgery

Budapest - 14-16 June, 2018

ESSO Course on Electrochemotherapy of Cutaneous and Deep Seated Tumors

Ljubljana - 22-23 October, 2018

White Paper: Laparoscopic Colectomy for Colon Cancer

A core collaborative group of ESSO members (30 experts in the field of minimally invasive surgery in colon cancer from 15 different countries) joined together to investigate the actual rate of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for colon cancer in different continents and to provide a White Paper on laparoscopic colectomy.

The manuscript was designed to outline the burden of laparoscopic colectomy for cancer, but also to provide an authoritative report based on experts consensus supporting a common definition of MIS colectomy (what is and what is not), its technical requirements, the oncological items that should be assured and the path of training to achieve a gold standard.

The Task Force, led by Prof. Domenico D'Ugo, produced a number of Consensus Statements to support the idea of MIS as a best practice procedure for colon cancer treatment, using the Delphi methodology. Three interview rounds were organised in the spring and summer, which led to a number of consensus statements.

Those statements were discussed and reviewed during a Task Force consensus meeting held in conjunction with the ESCP congress on 21th September 2017 in Berlin.

The outcomes of the project were then presented by Professor Domenico D’Ugo, ESSO Treasurer and Task Force leader, on the same day during a Medtronic satellite symposium. The title of Professor D’Ugo’s presentation was “Is MIS to be recommended as gold standard for colon cancer? Evidences in support and methodology for a pan-European consensus”

Following the September meeting in Berlin, a fourth interview round was circulated among the Task Force members in order to come up with final consensus statements and finalise the MIS position paper.

The full scientific paper has been submitted to EJSO but the abstract is available to read here.